Galatians 3 Footnotes

3:1-5 Paul appealed to his apostolic miracles in Galatia that authenticated the gospel (v. 5; Rm 15:18-19; 2Co 12:11-13). The absence of such miracles would have destroyed this section’s argument.

3:13 Paul had no reason to invent a crucified Messiah (whom Jews would view as cursed), revealing the humiliating depths to which God is willing to go to rescue humans from sin’s curse.

3:17 No chronological problem exists between Gn 15:13 (“four hundred years”) and Ex 12:40 (“430 years”). While four hundred could easily be a general, rounded-off time span, the Jewish rabbis’ ancient resolution is that Gn 15:13 speaks of Israel’s captivity in Egypt and Ex 12:40 speaks of the longer gap from Abraham’s entrance into Canaan to Moses’s leading the people out of Egypt. Hence, this latter span includes the additional thirty years.

3:28 Christianity did not erase ethnic, slavery, and gender distinctions (e.g., Eph 5:22–6:9); it made them irrelevant to entering into a fully privileged covenantal relationship as a child of God and of Abraham. This was radically different from the Greco-Roman culture that emphasized honor and status based upon one’s family or wealth.